Jarric - Interesting Times

[Jarric]

“There is a curse.
They say:
May you live in interesting times.”
― Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

 

 

I've been thinking about that quote a lot lately, for no other reason than the fact that people keep telling me we're living in interesting times. Or strange times. Maybe they're neither interesting nor strange, maybe they're just different.

 

Anyway, regardless of what's going on in the world, I've got a ziggurat to delve into and levelling up to do. Specifically, this ziggurat:

 

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x--Something Else--x

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xxxxxxxxxxx--Calories--xxxxxxxxxxx

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx--Exercise--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx--Tooth Care--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx--Hip Physio--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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The concept is simple, I have 5 daily goals, but I only score points for a goal if I've completed all the goals below it on the ziggurat. This keeps me accountable to doing the stuff I might avoid, and focuses me on what is most important.

 

Hip Physio - 15XP

What? Do my physio exercises and stretches for my hip

Why? Because whilst my hip has improved immeasurably over the last few months it's still not perfect, so I can't afford to lose steam on this. All of my physical goals rely on me being able to actually move, so this is important!

How? I have 12 exercises/stretches, and I will do them all every day. Ideally I'll do some with my morning workout, so I'll have less to do in the evening.

 

Tooth Care - 10XP

What? Care for my teeth

Why? Because I would very much like them to remain in my head for as long as possible.

How? Brush twice per day, once with an electric brush, and clean between my teeth once per day.

 

Exercise - 10XP

What? Exercise every day

Why? Because I want to be stronger, and better at things like climbing and obstacle course racing, and to be able to do cool stuff. Because it's good for my mental health. Because I enjoy it.

How? The goal is at least half an hour's exercise every day, though in reality it will usually be much more. Right now I'm following a bespoke programme from my CrossFit coach, so I'm going to see how that goes. I'm not 100% on it, but it's week 1 so I want to give it a chance. I need to be honest with myself and when I'm thinking about doing other things decide if I actually need to be doing stuff, or if I'm bored, or if it's just Rangerbrain(TM). The CrossFit coach plan is MTTF, and WSS are my running days.

 

Calories - 10XP

What? Count calories.

Why? Although I'm a reasonably average weight in terms of BMI, I'd like to see how I look with a lower body fat percentage. I set myself a goal of looking at hot as possible by London Comic Con. Comic Con's now been moved from May to July, so I've got even more time to look as fit as possible.

How? Average daily calories for the week need to be 2,650 - this was about a 15% deficit when I worked it out at 7#/3.2kg heavier than I am now, so it should still be a decent drop. To hit this average I have been working on 5 low days at 2,410 and two high days at 3,250. Now that I can't go out drinking a lot I might not need such high high days, so another option is 3 low days and 4 medium days at 2,830. Or 4 lows, 2 mediums, and a high. You get the idea.

 

Something Else - 10XP

What? Do something with your evenings

Why? Being isolated at home it would be very easy to watch a lot of TV I don't enjoy and not actually achieve anything. I don't want that.

How? Every day I just need to do something for at least half an hour - it could be creative like drawing or preparing D&D stuff, it could be educational like working on my French or working on accents, it could be social like playing D&D over the internet with friends. I want to make the most of my extra free time, so it doesn't matter how I do that, just that I do.

 

Coronavirus Rules

So to get through the next couple of months I've got a few rules for myself. I would appreciate if you call me out if you see me breaking these rules anywhere on the forums. I would also appreciate if you could respect these rules in my thread:

1. Don't worry about that which you cannot change. If I can do something to influence a situation, I should stop worrying and do it. If there's nothing I can do I shouldn't waste my energy worrying about it. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum - Baz Luhrmann
2. Be less judgemental. It's easy to look at people dealing differently with quarantines and restrictions and judge them. And I, like a lot of geeks, can be very judgemental of people who make what seem like unintelligent decisions. But everyone is working from different information, from different stories in the news, the 'news', and on social media. That doesn't make people stupid, or irresponsible, and it doesn't make them bad people. They're just trying to do their best with the information presented to them, just like everyone else. Now, more than ever, we need more compassion and less judgement.
3. Be positive. There are plenty of positive that can come out of any situation, and especially this one. Political parties are working together and providing for their citizens. Pollution has dropped dramatically. People are learning the value of social interaction, and pulling together to help each other. So I'm going to choose to focus on the good that can come out of this.
4. Make the most of it. I'm still working, but without going out in the evenings and with less to do on weekends I still have a lot of extra free time. If I come out the other side of this and I've just thrown that time away it would be a real fucking waste of an opportunity. I can use this to make myself a better, stronger, happier person. And I damn well intend to.

 

 

 

 

[deftona]

I love the positivity here, especially with that last paragraph. I always love following your challenges but I think I'm going to especially like this one.

Please tell me more about this 'practising accents' thing, I am intrigued!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following for your awesome attitude.  

[starpuck]

Jarric, thanks for being a breath of encouragement.   I'm here for this friend!  

(And we totally need to set up that shared art lesson thing!)

[Jarric]

On 3/25/2020 at 6:07 PM, deftona said:

I love the positivity here, especially with that last paragraph. I always love following your challenges but I think I'm going to especially like this one.

Please tell me more about this 'practising accents' thing, I am intrigued!

 

Thank you! I always said I couldn't do accents, and a couple of years ago a mate of mine pointed out 2 things. 1. Everyone can do one accent. 2. You can learn anything on YouTube.

 

Anyway, it's fun to play with different accents and it's cool to be able to pull them out playing different characters in D&D, so I've been working on learning some. There's loads of YouTube tutorials on what sounds make what accents, and then it's just a lot of practice.

 

21 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following for your awesome attitude.  

 

Thanks man, think I'm taking a leaf out of your book.

 

4 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Jarric, thanks for being a breath of encouragement.   I'm here for this friend!  

(And we totally need to set up that shared art lesson thing!)

 

I'm happy to be

 

And yes, we do! This weekend?

[starpuck]

For accents, I cannot recommend this adorable woman enough.   I found her while ... well, looking into the German accent for our Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game.    She's adorable.  And funny!

 

 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

I recommend @Tanktimus the Encourager videos, he did a nice battle speech in multiple accents a while back.

[deftona]

7 minutes ago, Jarric said:

I always said I couldn't do accents, and a couple of years ago a mate of mine pointed out 2 things. 1. Everyone can do one accent. 2. You can learn anything on YouTube.

 

Anyway, it's fun to play with different accents and it's cool to be able to pull them out playing different characters in D&D, so I've been working on learning some. There's loads of YouTube tutorials on what sounds make what accents, and then it's just a lot of practice.

 

if you want some coaching on the Brummie accent you know where to find me

 

(I don't actually have a Brummie accent myself but I have lived amongst them my entire life  )

 

[Jarric]

Well this challenge starts on Monday for me, and I'm not tracking stuff on zero week. But things are going well.

 

Working from home is interesting, but it hasn't really changed my routine. I get up at 6, I work out, I shower, put on a shirt and head to my desk. If anything the routine is easier because I'm not having such late nights.

 

We went to the supermarket this evening. I was dreading it, but it was actually great because there was almost no-one there! No eggs, not much tinned food and no paperware, but otherwise we managed to get everything we needed. I think I would actually be prepared to always take these shortages if the shops could stay this quiet!

 

When we got back I cooked a paneer and spinach curry, and now I'm watching High Rollers and drinking a very weird beer called Zombie Cake. It's a praline chocolate porter, and it's really rather good.

 

Tomorrow I need to record some of my workout for my coach, so if it comes out alright I might post that here too.

[starpuck]

Oh yes.  Share workouts!  I think that'd be a fun way to keep tight with peeps while we gotta space the airwaves out.

 

[deftona]

1 minute ago, Jarric said:

Zombie Cake. It's a praline chocolate porter, and it's really rather good.

 

That, and Clockwork Orange are the only Brewdogs I can't drink. Urgh. 

Did they have the weird social distancing queues outside the supermarket? They did at the Tesco I went to this morning, it was a surreal experience. 

[Jarric]

9 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

For accents, I cannot recommend this adorable woman enough.   I found her while ... well, looking into the German accent for our Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game.    She's adorable.  And funny!

 

 

 

 

Thanks, I will give her a listen!

 

So, are we going to get a video demonstration of your German accent?

 

5 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I recommend @Tanktimus the Encourager videos, he did a nice battle speech in multiple accents a while back.

 

I remember that! Don't know where to find it, but it was really good.

 

3 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

if you want some coaching on the Brummie accent you know where to find me

 

(I don't actually have a Brummie accent myself but I have lived amongst them my entire life  )

 

 

I might just take you up on that! Brummie would be a good accent to have in my arsenal.

 

5 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Oh yes.  Share workouts!  I think that'd be a fun way to keep tight with peeps while we gotta space the airwaves out.

 

 

Yeah, good point! I will endeavour to share stuff.

 

4 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

That, and Clockwork Orange are the only Brewdogs I can't drink. Urgh. 

Did they have the weird social distancing queues outside the supermarket? They did at the Tesco I went to this morning, it was a surreal experience. 

 

Really? I'm not a fan of Clockwork, but I'd rather that than something generic like Punk IPA. Then again, I do like a weird beer. They did a chilli chocolate stout - I think it was called Choco Libre - that was excellent.

 

And no. They split the entrance to have an in and an out so I guess if it was busy they might have done, but there was no queue at all. Honestly it was 5.30pm and it was so quiet it could have been midnight. We went to Lidl afterwards to try and get some of the stuff Tesco didn't have, and that was even quieter.

[deftona]

3 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Really? I'm not a fan of Clockwork, but I'd rather that than something generic like Punk IPA. Then again, I do like a weird beer. They did a chilli chocolate stout - I think it was called Choco Libre - that was excellent.

 

Dead Pony is my favourite but I am open to pretty much any kind of ale except anything chocolatey. I don't know why anyone would do that to beer. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Since it was requested: 

 

[Jarric]

10 hours ago, deftona said:

 

Dead Pony is my favourite but I am open to pretty much any kind of ale except anything chocolatey. I don't know why anyone would do that to beer. 

 

I have to disagree with you there, chocolate stout is a beautiful thing and I literally can't get enough of it. What I can't understand is why people keep putting grapefruit in beer.

 

10 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Since it was requested: 

 

 

I forgot just how good you are at those accents! Also, thanks for the inspiration to start my Friday

 

[Jarric]

Today has been a good day so far. I promised a workout video, so here's the only thing I could record in my tiny house:

 

 

 

Tonight I'm going to be trying to figure out how to use Roll20, and otherwise chilling out.

 

14 mile run in the morning, going to aim to get it done early so I have plenty of time with WW in the afternoon.

[Jarric]

The weekend was good. 14 mile run on Saturday went well, the weather was lovely again and I was really grateful to be out. Felt pretty strong throughout it too. In the evening we drank beer, watched TV, and fell asleep pretty early.

 

Sunday we got up late, made all the later by the fact that the clocks went forward. Got out for my run about lunch time; 4 miles with 6 x 110yd (~100m) sprints spread throughout. Again it felt good, though the weather was weird. In 40 minutes I got bright sunshine, hail, rain, snow, and drizzle.

 

I've offered to run a D&D campaign for some of the European rangers, so a lot of time was also spent working out how Roll20 works and reading the adventure I'll be running.

 

=====

 

And the challenge officially starts today. This morning my workout was:

Wall facing handstand holds - 5 x 15sec

Pullups - 3 x 1, 2, 3, 4

Hangboarding

L-sit progressions

Couch stretch

 

It felt good, and reasonably challenging. The hangboarding and l-sits were my additions to my coach's programming.

 

Plan for this evening is to finish setting up Roll20, and to write a challenge tracker for this challenge!

[Jarric]

Yesterday was a good day, and it was day one of this challenge.

 

Work was really busy - I shouldn't really be surprised as it's the end of the financial year but it's been so quiet up until yesterday afternoon. Anyway, I ended up finishing late, WW cooked a lovely chicken, leek and mushroom pie with a potato top, and we collapsed on the sofa in front of a D&D stream.

 

I did manage to check some character sheets for the game I'm running on Sunday, and I started on my challenge tracker, so that fulfils the "something else" goal. Following the e-mail Steve sent round recently I'm changing the name of that goal to "Alive Time" (as opposed to dead time).

 

I did my hip exercises late, but got to bed around half 10 still. Teeth were done, calories were easily under budget at 2,214/2,410, so 100% for day one. As I said, a good day!

 

=====

 

This morning I got up a few minutes late but still started my workout by half 6. The workout was:

Wall facing handstand holds - 5 x 15sec

Pullups - 5 x 1, 2, 3, 4

Sprints - 8 x 75m

 

The pullups were a great way to accumulate 50. I did them EMOM, so 20 minutes for 50 pullups isn't too intense, but not being too intense is how the programme is designed. The sprints were hard, and my left quads seized up on the final sprint, but otherwise a good (fairly long) workout.

 

Work has been mega busy again today; think it'll quieten down over this course of this week though (fingers crossed).

 

=====

 

Tonight I am playing D&D, tomorrow I'll be preparing for D&D, Thursday night is D&D, and then Friday and Saturday I'll prepare for D&D before running my D&D game on Sunday. Did I mention I also need to level up my character for our play by post D&D game? Are you sensing a theme here? Here's a hint:

 

 

(Sidebar: I feel like @Tanktimus the Encourager would appreciate the retroness of this video, despite it being faux retro.)

 

It does however make filling my time with rewarding things very very easy  

[starpuck]

Awesome day 1, and awesome plan for the week.    I ...

I just have one concern.

I don't think you're prioritizing D&D enough.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Young man, you thought right. I do appreciate it. 

[Quirky Quinn]

On 3/27/2020 at 7:50 AM, Jarric said:

 

I have to disagree with you there, chocolate stout is a beautiful thing and I literally can't get enough of it. What I can't understand is why people keep putting grapefruit in beer.

 

Hazy Jane is my favourite Brewdog and I do like  my beer to taste like beer- chocolate stout maybe, fruit beer not a chance! 

[starpuck]

As a person who is not a beer fan, those fruit beers are my life line lol!

Fool's Majority, by Pollyanna (local burb brewery).

It's a Huckleberry Ale - and ... well, huckleberry is like my favorite flavor to add to anything!

Taffy, ice cream, jam, glaze ... ohgodIloveItSoMuch

 

[DarK_RaideR]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

Tonight I am playing D&D, tomorrow I'll be preparing for D&D, Thursday night is D&D, and then Friday and Saturday I'll prepare for D&D before running my D&D game on Sunday. Did I mention I also need to level up my character for our play by post D&D game?

Living the dream, mate

[Sloth the Enduring]

As a person who is not a beer fan, those fruit beers are my life line lol!
Fool's Majority, by Pollyanna (local burb brewery).
It's a Huckleberry Ale - and ... well, huckleberry is like my favorite flavor to add to anything!
Taffy, ice cream, jam, glaze ... ohgodIloveItSoMuch
 

I love huckleberry and I love ale. I’m going to have to look for that.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I like chocolate stouts and I like fruit beers. I like most stuff that isn't IPA, and I even like some of those if I taste anything other than pepper.